EAST LANSING — The Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services said Monday it has a new agreement with Arlington, Va.-based Surescripts allowing users of Surescripts’ clinical interoperability network to send electronic health information to the State of Michigan’s public health reporting systems through MiHIN and the Michigan Department of Community Health.

MiHIN and Surescripts entered an agreement based on the DirectTrust technical, legal, and business security and privacy standards for Healthcare Information Service Provider connectivity. Michigan is a leader in interstate health information exchange and has successfully established Direct HISP to HISP connectivity with several other states using ONC-approved federally bridged security certificates.

“Our agreement with MiHIN is another example of how Surescripts is transforming health care by enabling secure exchange of electronic information within and across the many diverse participants in the healthcare industry,” said Jeff Miller, senior vice president and general manager of clinical interoperability for Surescripts. “Our clinical interoperability network offers robust and innovative solutions that support standard formats, workflow, processes and customized message content to facilitate communications between healthcare organizations and drive better care coordination.”

Connecting the two solutions will allow health care providers in Michigan who are already using the Surescripts network to send a wide variety of information, such as clinical quality measures and quality reports for participation in quality improvement programs and future ‘meaningful use’ attestation.

“There are many use cases where direct is the fastest, simplest, lowest-cost solution for providers to exchange health information securely,” said Jeff Livesay, MiHIN associate director. “This leap forward for Michigan via Surescripts will allow MiHIN to more rapidly fulfill its charter to improve the quality and decrease the cost of patient care at the point of care. We like Surescripts’ strategy of embedding direct into electronic health record vendor solutions to make it easier for providers to attest to Meaningful Use Stage Two. This fits well with MiHIN’s plans for robust interstate connectivity. The qualified HIEs in Michigan participating in MiHIN are actively connecting with HISPs in other states, continuing to expand Michigan’s footprint for health information exchange.”

MiHIN includes a dynamic group of organizations already engaged in electronic health information exchange within Michigan including the State of Michigan’s Department of Community Health, the Southeast Michigan Beacon Community based in Detroit, and all six sub-state health information exchanges in Michigan which have signed up with MiHIN as Qualified Data Sharing organizations: